An Ambassador Who Should Be Disembarked

For quite a while lately, Mr. Mark Gitenstein, the U.S. ambassador to Bucharest, has not been doing a very good job promoting American and Romanian interests in the region. During the past few decades, it has become obvious that major countries appointed their representatives for electoral reasons; these persons were shallow, not committed to any superior aims, petty and money-driven. They were clerks who failed to rise to the level of the people they outranked in the hierarchy.

However, as alliances exist between Romania and the U.S., the diplomatic voice needs amplitude, correctness and, quite often, equal support for common interests. The anti-missile shield in Deveselu is not the only vital connection between Romania and the United States. The shield is rather a consequence of resisting the dangers that threaten the entire civilized world. For both administrations, America includes the Romanians, who have contributed to shaping a better world in science, culture and current events overseas. During communism, America was undoubtedly the source of light for Romanians. Europe would be in ruins today had it not been for the American support against Nazism. The U.S. provided not only its standards for well-being and Coca-Cola, but also the fundamentals of freedom as a way of celebrating life.

Romania continued to send faint signals to the U.S. in the 70s as well, even though this involved inherent risks. The U.S. effort, including certain sanctions of the dictatorship, was prompt and committed. Romanians are not as skeptical of the U.S. like a great part of Western society is. The Romanian emigration is, I believe, most exceptional in terms of the emigrants’ integration and affiliation to democratic, human and professional values. America continues to be the world’s center of balance, as it contains within itself all the resources for preventing a global catastrophe. America’s mistakes can be corrected at the common table because they are not fatal flaws. They are not the mistakes of the former Soviet Union. America is based on a type of justice that is generally fair and redeeming.

His Excellency Mark Gitenstein’s Romanian origins, which he mentioned during the U.S. Senate hearings for his appointment to Bucharest, should have, among other reasons, kept him away for the pettiness of the business world.

The Roşia Montană mining project, the project for shale gas exploitation, as well as military acquisitions seem to be the tip of the settlement of the current Romanian president’s regime — a payment to the guarantor of freedom, which the Romanian political official seems to have mistaken for a personal protector. Hence the suspicious diplomatic approach in Bucharest. The huge business deals seem to have blocked all rational thought. Although the whole intellectual and civil Romanian society is against these initiatives, the corporations involved refuse to give in and persist in an unacceptable direction. These issues are obviously not part of the American strategy.

The American ambassador, after having fiercely supported the two projects, has also voiced his opinion on our domestic policies, apparently forgetting that Romania is not a banana republic. His Excellency has turned into a Balkan businessman. U.S. policies in the region are pulled down to a striking mediocrity through the performance of this high-ranking diplomatic official.

The ambassador has, of course, other attributes. The first would be silence, caution! His voice should support fairness and be above any involvement that might trigger suspicion or damage the interests. In the current situation, we are dealing with an individual who seems to be somewhat of a businessman, while Romania is a country he must conquer.

Mediocrity has enveloped diplomacy almost everywhere. Slippages, however, should require answers and proper clarifications. Neither the U.S. nor Romania can allow their high-ranking officials to become the agents of private companies, irrespective of the benefits that might arise from the business deals in question, for the simple reason that money is not everything.

Having witnessed their opposition to the projects, Ambassador Gitenstein has arrogantly replied that Romanians will not receive U.S. visas like Polish citizens. The U.S. will soon contradict this threat, which will end up in the trashcan of history, by waiving visas. Could the ambassador have forgotten that Romanian soldiers are the Americans’ friends in military operations or that many Romanians have the right to vote in the U.S.? No, he has not forgotten. Nevertheless, he knows that a dictator still exists here, and that many aberrations are possible in such a place.

The American political class, the discerning and professional diplomacy, are obviously functioning according to another set of rules, which, it seems, the representative of a great democracy refuses to acknowledge.